Free Through the Flames by Ryne Billings Page B

hand, you’re going to screw everything up. Is that what you want? Do you want your quest for revenge to become impossible?”
     
    Caleb was taken aback by her words. It seemed that her words had struck him fairly hard, seeing as no response came from him.
     
    Taking a deep breath, Katie spoke again. This time, her words came out softer. “Give it some time, Caleb. Nicolas will help us with this, but there are some things you don’t know yet. I promise that we’ll talk to him about it tonight.”
     
    Though her promise was not all that reassuring to him, Caleb nodded. He found that he could not bring himself to look her in the eyes after the way he had snapped at her moments ago.
     
    Silence reigned as they waited for Nicolas to return.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “That was just what I needed,” Caleb remarked as he stepped through the door that was across from the door to the tavern.
     
    About an hour had passed since he arrived at the Black Raven Inn with Katie, and he had just finished bathing and getting dressed. As a result, he was no longer clad in bloody clothing.
     
    Black leather boots, loose black cloth trousers, a dark blue tunic that fell to the middle of his thighs, and a finely made black leather belt cinched at his waist made him look like a new man entirely. At Katie’s request, the only weapon that he carried at that moment was the knife his father had given him two years earlier. Its sheath was replaced with a new one that was made of the same leather and craftsmanship as his belt.
     
    Walking across the dirt ground, Caleb pulled the heavy door open, being treated to a sight that made his eyes widen slightly.
     
    Though he could tell that the girl before him was Katie, she was not the dirt covered girl with tangled hair anymore. With black leather boots that stopped a few inches below her knees, a pair of black leggings tucked into her boots, a dark red sleeveless tunic that fell a few inches below her waist, a slender black leather belt cinching her tunic to her waist, and a pair of fingerless black leather gloves on, she looked far different than he had expected. That was only the beginning of it though.
     
    Her once dirty face and tangled hair were no more. There was no doubt that she was a girl, and a beautiful one at that, with her face clean, allowing her light skin tone to be clear and her eyes to sparkle like the emeralds that they looked like. In addition to that, her once tangled hair now fell to her shoulder blades and was held back in a ponytail by a piece of black leather that was laced up at its underside. It appeared as though her hair had become a more vibrant shade of red since he last saw her.
     
    “You look very nice, Caleb,” Katie said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Her eyes seemed to brighten further at that point. “We were just waiting on you.”
     
    Caleb’s eyes immediately darted to the bar as he stepped through the door and pushed it shut. His eyes stayed on Nicolas, who was sitting on the bar with his legs crossed, for a few moments before he turned his attention back to his female companion.
     
    “I’m surprised,” he said, his voice low. “I thought you two would discuss everything without me. I’m not exactly in the know when it comes to the things that you two specialize in.”
     
    “We can’t fault you for not knowing the game, Caleb,” Nicolas said as he hopped off of the bar. “You’ve clearly been living in a small village your entire life. You’ve been to a few other small villages, by my reckoning. Katie remarked that you were caught off guard when you entered my inn. I’m going to assume that you’ve ever been to a place that was large enough to have an inn, so how can I fault you for not knowing the game?”
     
    The blond’s voice grew dry. He could not deny the man’s words. In fact, his next words only served to confirm them. “What game do you speak of?”
     
    The raven haired man’s lips pressed together at that, laughter